Floral display



\ W.. PINNECKER March 7, 1967 FLORAL DISPLAY Filed Feb. 27, 1964 INVENTOR PINNECKER United States Patent 3,308,005 FLORAL DISPLAY Wald Pinnecker, P.0. Box 312, Oshkosh, Wis. 54901 Filed Feb. 27, 1964, Ser. No. 347,879 1 Claim. (Cl. 16131) This invention appertains to floral displays and the like, and more particularly to new and useful improvements in floral structures and forms, and means for securing the decorative material to the base form.

The various forms and means for securing the decorative material of this invention can be useful in the formation of a wide variety of displays, such as Wreaths, crosses, anchors, long garlands, hearts and other desired shapes. Heretofore, such displays were made almost entirely by hand which was time consuming and expensive. Attempts have been made in the past to overcome this tedious task by using various types of locking wires, cords, glue and staples to secure the floral material to a base form. However, most of these methods required great amounts of labor and material, and the wreaths made by this method were often comparatively expensive and the branches tended to fall off of the frame, thus ruining the decorative and commercial value of the display.

Therefore, a primary object of my present invention is to provide a floral display having a base form in the shape of a wreath, cross or the like, which retains its decorative appearance and shape for an extended period of time in spite of relatively rough handling.

Another important object of my present invention is to provide a decorative structure having fastening means particularly adapted to be secured to the base form which is resilient but permanently deformable to firmly hold the floral material to the form.

A further object of my present invention is to provide floral displays in which the flora is effectively attached to the frame in a manner which materially reduces the cost of manufacture and which when in operative position is almost imperceptible to sight and held Within a portion of the decorative material.

A salient feature of my present invention resides in the particular formation of the fastening member so that it can be readily and permanently secured to the form and which cooperates with the base frame or form to hold the floral material firmly in position and to maintain a more uniform and attractive appearance.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in the novel construction, arrangement and formation of parts, as will be hereinafter more fully described, and claimed, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which,

FIG. 1 is a top elevational view of one shape or form of the base frame and fastening members for making a floral display, such as a wreath, certain of the fastening members being shown in operative position;

FIG. 2 is a transverse section through the form taken on the line 2-2 of FIG. 1 and showing a fastening member in front elevational view and indicating in dotted lines its closed operative position;

FIG. 3 is a transverse section taken on the line 3-3 of FIG. 1 and showing my novel fastener in its closed operative position with floral material held therein, and

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 2 of the drawings but showing a preferred modification of the form.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, wherein similar reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several views, the letter D generally indicates one shape or form of my improved floral display and in this form the base member is shaped as a ring for the purpose of forming a decorative wreath or the like. The base ring 10 is formed from flexible and permanently deformable wire, and has secured thereto at Attention therefore is directed primarily to FIGURE 2 of the drawings, and it can be seen thatmy novel fastening member 11 includes an offset or recessed central portion 12 of a size and configuration to receive the base form or wire 10 and it is important to note that the fastener 11 is secured by means of welding to the base wire 10 primarily at the point 13. Extending outwardly from the offset 12 are the leg portions 14 and 15, respectively, and these portions each include laterally and upwardly inclined stretches 16 and the upwardly extendingstretches 17. Thus, it can be seen that the upstanding stretches 17 diverge slightly from one another and .this makes it simple to place floral material within the space 18 over each fastening member 11.

In FIGURE 2 of the drawing, the fastening member 11 is shown in its open inoperative position in full lines and in its closed operative position in dotted lines, and the legs 14 and 15 are moved in the direction of the arrows so that the stretches 17 overlap as shown to encompass the desired flora therein. It is important to note that the legs 14 and 15 deform and bend at the points 19 and 20 where they join the center offset portion 12. Therefore, there is no movement or stretching and straining of the intermediate stretch 21 of the offset 12 and the weld will hold firm and not become disconnected from the base form 10.

Attention is now directed to FIGURE 3 wherein the position of the fastening member about the flora is shown in full lines and the point of joining the member with the 1 base form 10 is clearly illustrated.

As previously mentioned the base form 10 may be shaped not only in the form of a ring or wreath as shown, but in any desired shape, such as a cross, anchor, or heart, and the fast-ening members 11 will then be spaced along the form in a manner shown and described. If desired, the stretches 17 can be slightly offset one from the other so that when they are brought together from the full line position to the dotted lineposition, FIGURE 2, they will overlap and not strike one against the other but due to their inherent resiliency they can be easily displaced for this purpose. Thus it can be seen that pieces of decorative material can be arranged as desired within the frame 10 and then the individual fastening members 11 deformed and locked about the material to firmly hold the same, as shown more particularly in FIGURES 1 and 3 of the drawings. It should also be noted that the fasteners then lie Within the decorative material and are substantially concealed from view.

It is, of course, understood that the display may be made in various sizes and shapes and when a relatively large sized wreath is to be made it has been found that upon deformation of the fastening member 11 a strain is placed on the weld point 13. In order to completely avoid this problem I provide a preferred modified type of fastener shown more particularly in FIGURE 4 of the drawings. This fastener is similar to and operates in much the same way as the fastener 11 and therefore, the fastener 11' includes the central offset portion 12, the legs 14 and 15', respectively, which include the inclined stretches 16' and the upwardly extending stretches 17'. However, in this form of the invention the central recess 12 is wider to provide spaces 21 on either side of the base ring 10 and these spaces assure that no deformation will take place at the point 13 when the legs 3 14' and 15 are bent at the points 19' and 26'. Thus, when the legs are moved from their full line position toward the dotted line position in FIGURE 4, it is readily apparent that ample room is provided between the points of bend (19, 20') and the ring 10 is as indicated by the numeral 21.

Thus, it can be seen that I have provided a new and novel means and device for making a floral display in which the fastening devices can be readily secured to a base form member in such a manner that they will not be loosened therefrom during the deformation and locking of the fastening members.

From the foregoing, it is believed that the features and advantages of my invention will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and it will, of course, be understood that changes in the form, proportion and minor details of construction can be resorted to with-out departing from the spirit or the scope of the invention and appended claim.

I claim:

A floral display comprising a central wire base form member capable of being shaped to a given design, a plurality of resilient wire fastening members capable of permanent deformation, said wire fastening members being spaced about and afiixed to said base form member, each fastening member including a central offset portion providing a recess of a size and configuration to receive a respective portion of the under surface of said wire base form, a pair of inclined stretches each secured to a respective end of said central offset portion, and an upwardly and outwardly extending stretch secured to the end termination of each inclined stretch, said central offset portion being Welded at its apex to the under surface of said Wire base frame, whereby when said fastening members are deformed to an over-lapping locking position the apex of said central offset portion will retain its original form and said point of weld will not be strained or weakened.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS ALEXANDER WYMAN, Primary Examiner.

JACOB H. STEINBERG, Examiner. 

